Combined floor-polisher and suction cleaner

ABSTRACT

A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner having an inner and outer floor contacting flexible skirt depending from the housing. A rotary buffing means and suction means is located within the inner skirt and both skirts have apertures along their bottom edges so that large pieces of litter may be drawn into the suction means. These apertures are staggered so that any litter ricocheting off the buffer cannot be propelled through the apertures.

United States Patet n91 Lamont 1March 13, 1973 1 1 COMBINED FLOOR-POLISHER AND SUCTION CLEANER [75] Inventor: George Laurence Lamont, New

South Wales, Australia [73] Assignee: ,Contract Cleaning Co. Pty. Limited, Hurlstone Park, New South Wales, Australia 22 Filed: Feb.9,l97l

21 App1.No.: 114,019

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 9, 1970 Australia ..3440/70 [52] US. Cl ..15/385,15/420 [51] Int. Cl. ..A47l 5/10 [58] Field of Search ..15/320, 321, 322, 378, 385, 15/420 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1970 Lamont ..l5/385 1,929,345 10/1933 Brown et a1. ..15/321 1,821,715 9/1931 Kuchinsky ..15/322 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 507,063 12/1954 ltaly ..15/385 Primary Examiner-Edward L. Roberts Assistant Examiner-C. K. Moore Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [57] ABSTRACT A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner having an inner and outer floor contacting flexible skirt depending from the housing. A rotary buffing means and suction means is located within the inner skirt and both skirts have apertures along their bottom edges so that large pieces of litter may be drawn into the suction means. These apertures are staggered so that any litter ricocheting off the buffer cannot be propelled through the apertures.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEDHARI 3197s SHEET 10F 2 Fig. 1.

I'H'IFI R2 -1 n n L 11 13 COMBINED FLOOR-POLISIIER AND SUCTION CLEANER This invention relates to combined floor polishers and cleaners.

It is known to clean floors by first sweeping them with brooms or the like and then buffing them with suitable polishing arrangements, but this process suffers from the disadvantage that the buffing disturbs more dust and thus the floor may need sweeping again. It is also known to clean a floor by omitting the initial sweeping process and simply buffing it and then finally dusting it by hand or otherwise. However, this lastmentioned expedient is found to be uneconomical since, although an operator may be able to sweep approximately 1000 square feet of floor area in twelve minutes, approximately a further six minutes per thousand square feet is then required for dusting, and hence it is desirable to be able to clean a floor by initially removing dust and litter from it before any buffing or polishing operation commences.

For this reason, combined buffing and suction cleaning machines have been proposed. However, these have been generally inefficient owing to the nature and quality of the seal between the floor surface and the intake region of the suction device. In this respect an excessive height above floor level of the region of entry to the suction device has usually resulted in too low a velocity of the inwardly-directed dust-laden air, and even when this has not been the case, any high velocity flow which has been present has tended to be in the wrong place, and hence too great a transport distance for relatively large pieces of litter, such as matches and pins, has resulted in the failure of such devices to remove all the dirt and litter from the immediate vicinity of the floor surface in one operation.

In accordance with the invention therefore, a combined floor polisher and suction cleaner comprises, in combination, motor-driven rotatable buffing means mounted within an enveloping housing which terminates in a depending floor-contacting multiple walled flexible skirt, said housing being connected to motor-driven suction means in turn connected to refuse-collecting means, said flexible skirt being adapted to maintain contact with a floor to be cleaned, despite the variations in the angular disposition of said housing with respect to said floor while traversed across said floor, and wherein at least some walls of said skirt have non-registering apertures therein, adapted to provide an inlet path for litter attracted by said suction means, but being too large to pass beneath said skirt, and said apertures being disposed so as to block an outgoing path for any of said large litter which may ricochet from said buffing means.

Certain embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which,

FIG. 1 shows, in side elevation, a combined floor polisher and suction cleaner having rectangular apertures in both walls of its skirt,

FIG. 2 shows, in side elevation and partly in section, a view along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows, in plan view from below, an arrangement of spacing pieces between said walls,

FIG. 4 shows, in side elevation and partly in section, a modification of the apparatus of FIG. 2,

FIG. 5 shows, in plan, a view along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 shows, in side elevation and partly in section, a further modification of the apparatus of FIG. 2 and FIG. 7 shows, in plan, a view along the line 7-7 of FIG. 6.

It will be seen from the drawings that the walls 8 and 9 of the skirt 10, which may be constructed from leather or other suitable flexible material, are so formed that they provide a relatively good seal with respect to the floor 11, so that when the housing 12 is partly evacuated by the suction means (not shown) there is an inward flow of air at high velocity from the part of the floor immediately surrounding the lips 13 and 14 of the skirt and into said housing, so as to carry with it any surrounding litter such as dust.

However, the seal must not, of course, be too effective because this would prevent any air input to said housing. Thus, the total effective area of the gaps between the lips 13 and I4 and the floor determines the volumetric efficiency of the suction system as a whole. This area may be varied, for example, by scalloping or similarly shaping the margins of the lips and this also assists in the passage of larger pieces of refuse into the region beneath the skirt and also ultimately into the suction means without interfering substantially with the desirable high velocity of air admitted beneath the lips.

The walls 8 and 9 are provided with shaped apertures such as 15 and 18 for the admission of large litter. These apertures should be arranged so as not to register from wall to wall so that although an inlet path for litter attracted by the suction means is comparatively free, the apertures are so disposed that they block any possible outgoing path for any of said large litter which may ricochet after striking said buffing means such as the brush 16 of FIG. 2 or the buff 17 of FIG. 3.

The walls 8 and 9 may, in the interests of simplicity of manufacture, be substantially circular as shown in FIGS. 3, 5 and 7 when viewed in plan. In this case various arrangements of non-registering pairs of apertures may be employed therein. For example, upright notches such as 19 in FIG. 4 may be cut in the walls and one free edge of each notch, such as 20 and 21 in FIGS. 4 and 5 may be directed partially inwards from each respective walls periphery. Alternatively, articulated sections such as 22 of a partially slotted wall may be loosely pivoted about pins such as 23 attaching sections as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

In a further arrangement, spacing pieces such as 24 may be inserted between the walls as in FIG. 3 so as to deny direct litter ricochet paths between staggered apertures 15 and 18 formed in adjacent walls 8 and 9.

Preferably, a motor of known kind (not shown) which drives the suction means is, in the interests of simplicity, rigidly mounted in the casing 25 with respect to the housing, and said suction means is connected to the flexible skirt by means of a suitable flexible tube which may, for example, be not only capable of bending but also be telescopic by virtue of the provision of radial ribs therein in known manner.

If desired, a separate motor may be provided for the buffing means, so that both said motors may be specifically designed for their own particular purpose. Thus, the motor which drives the suction means should run at a much higher speed than that for the buffing means,

and so the necessity for attaching a single motor to one or both of said means via reduction gearing is obviated.

The telescopic inlet need not be formed from stiff material but may comprise a flexible skin which forms an inner housing set to one side of the flexible skirt. This skin may'be supported by a relatively stiff wire which may, for example, be coiled and mounted inside the skin so as to stand free from it, but is preferably located outside the skin or woven into it so to prevent it a from collapsing.

It has been found in tests leading to the invention that a combined polisher and suction cleaner, constructed in accordance with the invention, is capable of removing even large litter from any hard flooring surface at a rate of less than four minutes per thousand square feet. Furthermore, it has been found capable of drawing even light dust towards the system throughout its operation, instead of spreading said dust as is the case with conventional buffing.

In a modification of the invention wherein say, three buffing devices are used and the skirt is disposed around said means in a clover-leaf shaped formation, some of said apertures, if arranged regularly around a double walled skirt, will need to be blocked off to prevent outward ricochet paths for any large litter which is given a complex motion as a consequence of multiple collisions with the separate buffing devices, two of which would be rotating in common senses and one of which would be rotating in contrary senses.

I claim:

1. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner comprising in combination an enveloping housing, a

first floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing and being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floor-contacting edge to provide for the passage of litter inwardly of said first skirt, a second floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing inwardly of said first skirt and generally concentric therewith, said second skirt being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floorcontacting edge to provide for the further passage of litter inwardly of said second skirt, a motor-driven rotatable bufflng means mounted within said second skirt, said apertures in said first skirt being disposed so as not to register with said apertures in said second skirt or to provide therewith an outgoing path for litter which may ricochet from said buffing means, suction means within said second skirt to attract litter inwardly of said first and second skirts.

2. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1, wherein said apertures comprise upright notches cut in said skirts, the free edge of at least one of said notches facing inwardly from its respective skirt. I

3. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1, wherein articulated partially slotted sections of at least one of said skirts are loosely pivoted about pins attaching said sections to the housing.

4. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1, wherein spacing pieces are inserted between said skirts so as to deny direct litter ricochet paths between peripherally staggered apertures formed in said skirts adjacent said spacing pieces. 

1. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner comprising in combination an enveloping housing, a first floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing and being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floor-contacting edge to provide for the passage of litter inwardly of said first skirt, a second floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing inwardly of said first skirt and generally concentric therewith, said second skirt being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floor-contacting edge to provide for the further passage of litter inwardly of said second skirt, a motor-driven rotatable buffing means mounted within said second skirt, said apertures in said first skirt being disposed so as not to register with said apertures in said second skirt or to provide therewith an outgoing path for litter which may ricochet from said buffing means, suction means within said second skirt to attract litter inwardly of said first and second skirts.
 1. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner comprising in combination an enveloping housing, a first floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing and being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floor-contacting edge to provide for the passage of litter inwardly of said first skirt, a second floor-contacting flexible skirt depending from said housing inwardly of said first skirt and generally concentric therewith, said second skirt being provided with spaced apertures therein open to its lower floor-contacting edge to provide for the further passage of litter inwardly of said second skirt, a motor-driven rotatable buffing means mounted within said second skirt, said apertures in said first skirt being disposed so as not to register with said apertures in said second skirt or to provide therewith an outgoing path for litter which may ricochet from said buffing means, suction means within said second skirt to attract litter inwardly of said first and second skirts.
 2. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1, wherein said apertures comprise upright notches cut in said skirts, the free edge of at least one of said notches facing inwardly from its respective skirt.
 3. A combined floor polisher and suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1, wherein articulated partially slotted sections of at least one of said skirts are loosely pivoted about pins attaching said sections to the housing. 